Crane's Art Project Steps on the American Flag

The assignment was to create a "social experiment art project."

In other words, create something that will test people.

Susan Crane's "social experiment" produced results that she didn't expect.

How did she expect people to react when she put American flags on the floor of a busy hallway? She had to know that she was playing with fire.

From the Morning Sentinel:

Susan Crane thought she was prepared to handle the reaction from students when she constructed five, large American flags on the student center hallway floor at the University of Maine at Farmington as an art class project.
What she didn't expect was the level of emotion her experiment ignited.

Agitated students and veterans called it an insult. UMF maintenance workers placed cardboard signs at either end with the word "disgrace" printed in black.

And a member of the American Legion from Farmington was ready to be arrested by police when he started pulling up the flags made of tape and vinyl, calling it a "desecration."

Veteran Charles Bennett, the Legion commander for Franklin County, eventually was convinced by UMF President Theodora Kalikow to desist in the name of freedom of speech.

The assignment was to create a social commentary piece for a class with assistant art professor Kate Randall.

Starting about 6 a.m., students and employees walking through the student center had to decide to either step around or step on the five, four-by-five-foot flags and the 3,000 small, handheld flags scattered over the floor. As part of her project, Crane videotaped people's feet to record their response.

"This is very emotional for me because it goes against a lot of my own beliefs about the flag," Crane said, her eyes tearing up, after holding her own against a verbal barrage.

"But I feel strongly that people should have the choice. That is what our country is all about. I expected controversy but not like this," she said.

"I am on their side and I agree with what they are saying but they were also not hearing what I was saying," she said.

"Veterans have fought for our freedom and died for our freedom. This is what our freedom is all about," Crane said.

Crane, 40, an education major, described herself as a conservative Republican whose father is a 25-year military veteran. She said she had talked about her project with him and that he supported it.

"He said he respected what I was doing because he had fought for these rights," she said.

...The overwhelming majority of passersby circumvented the flags. Only a few chose to step on them, Crane observed.

As the peaceful but loud crowd increased, [Director of Public Safety Ted] Blais called for backup. Officers from the Farmington Police Department and UMF arrived as did Kalikow, Provost Alan Berger and Celeste Branham, vice president of student affairs. Kalikow took Bennett aside to explain the college's position.

"The U.S. Constitution touches everybody and the flag is a symbol of our rights. We have to protect that," Kalikow said later.

"(Bennett) feels very strongly and I feel very strongly," she said. "I didn't like this either because I was brought up with flag etiquette. But (Crane) has the right to do it. Is that not what America is about?"

...Iraq war veteran Travis Hill, 28, of Salem Township, called the display "infuriating" and "insulting" and told Crane to take it down.

"She made her point. Why keep going?" he said.

...The project was approved for 24 hours. That plan was shelved, however, when Farmington Fire Chief Terry Bell, after consulting with State Fire Marshal Tim Fuller, determined the flags presented a tripping hazard.

By late afternoon, he ordered them moved to one side of the hall but Crane, exhausted, decided to remove them completely.

Susan Crane, this is your 15 minutes!

Certainly, putting American flags on the floor to test whether people would step on them is a project that would get noticed. It's as if Crane wanted to garner national attention.

She succeeded.

Crane, the "conservative Republican," had to know that she would upset veterans. She had to know that she would greatly offend them, as well as many other Americans.

...She said the confrontations were upsetting, especially since her 11-year-old son and husband were there. But she is proud she stood up for what she believed.

"The best thing about all this was that it sparked discussion," she said afterward.

Crane is proud of herself. She stood up for the right of free speech.

That's her prerogative.

Personally, I wouldn't be proud of using free speech rights to provide cover for a terribly disrespectful display.

American flags can be plastered on the floor of a university. That's acceptable. That's art.

Of course, something like images of aborted babies are often considered too offensive to be viewed.

Would the unversity agree to an "art project" that had graphic pictures of aborted babies lining the walls of a campus cafeteria, as a "social experiment"?

I wonder if that sort of free speech would have been supported by the university. I doubt it.